When I was younger (and still now), I always thought the future would completely embrace wireless technology for everything, including electricity. In an extreme idea of that, there would be no power lines – only wireless electricity transmission towers similar to the abundance of cell phone towers. Well thanks to MIT, we are one step closer to that idea of grandeur.
Realizing their recent theoretical prediction, they were able to light a 60W light bulb from a power source seven feet (more than two meters) away; there was no physical connection between the source and the appliance. The MIT team refers to its concept as “WiTricity” (as in wireless electricity).
The MIT news office has a thorough post on the technical details of how WiTricity works – magnetically coupled resonance. In a nutshell, the technology involves two copper coils. One sends the electricity with a “non-radiative magnetic field oscillating at MHz frequencies” while the other coil turns the field into usable electricity across the room.
Once this technology is honed down, it has a potential use in laptops. The article discusses the possibility of operating a laptop computer within a WiTricity-enabled room, where the laptop wouldn’t even need a battery – just a receiving coil. Now the question is, can these coils be made small without impacting their performance (ideal for integration in small devices).
But what happens when the distance of the sending/receiving coils is changed on the fly? That is, if they are 1 foot apart compared to 20, does the electricity transferred change? I can imagine it would be bad if you move your WiTricity laptop too close to the transmitting coil and a boost of electricity fries the laptop.
Next up, WiTricity-powered electric cars (Tesla anyone?) coupled with WiTricity-enabled highways for long road trips.
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Haven’t you heard of Powercast though? http://www.powercastco.com/ It was in Wired a couple months back. Cool stuff for low-power devices (like iPods, cell phones, etc)!
Believe it or not, this technology is over a hundred years old. Nikola Tesla experimented with wireless power and was successful in lighting light bulbs miles away. Tesla was even building a tower called Wardenclyffe Tower in which he hoped to transmit wireless power to the world until his funding was cut by J.P. Morgan.
I’m not downplaying MIT’s wireless power; we’re just playing catchup with Tesla’s inventions.
You’ll have to excuse the skeptic in me, but wouldn’t living in those kinds of EMF et al fields be bad for you?
When I was younger I always wondered when they will invent such a thing, now it’s theoretically possible. Gotta love MIT :)
The power transferred is reduced exponentially based on distance, the further away you are, the less power you get. This basically works on the same principle as an AC transformer works, however instead of using an iron core, there is just air between the two coils.
This type of power could cause a lot of problems. Any metallic loop within range of the transmitter could have a current running through it. These loops would waste some of the power by heating up too.
Well they were saying it’s contrasted from the tech behind transformers in that ..
But I can imagine as you said Mike that power changes based on distance, which means devices that end up using this technology would have to tote powerful voltage regulation systems to cope with the rapid fluctuation of power.
Great, more technology to cause potential environmental problems and health hazards. Oh well, I guess it comes with the territory, but personally I hope I don’t find myself living in a wireless power field someday.
This reminds of that whole idea MIT thought of a few years ago, recharging batteries by swiping them across wireless chargers.
Either way the concept has been around for a really long time, but it’d still be awesome to see its application in our lifetimes.
Sounds dangerous… it definitely would free us from cable world, but somehow I feel like our brains will get fried with all the cell phone signals, WiFi and Bluetooth around us already…
I was going to point out that this is likely to further increase the bee-wifi problem, which I vaguely remember hearing about a few months ago. But after reading up on the theory, it seems the only website I can find that truly believes that wifi affects bee populations is a rather dodgy creationist website… and high skepticism is always best to employ when sailing into their water.
So in light of this, yay for WiTricity.
I’m glad they are working on this. It will be nice once I don’t have to be tethered to the wall by my power cord. I don’t think it could be too dangerous; after all, you can take a flourescent light bulb under high voltage power lines, and it will light up.
I suppose this new system is much more efficient, however.